Firefighter

"The Legion Commander's full-scale counteroffensive had been going on for over half a month."

"In that half month, we made rapid progress. The situation had completely turned around."

"But recently, the rebels had suddenly become capable of establishing defensive positions."

While the 87th Regiment cleared out the small city they had just captured, Duncan sat inside a Leman Russ Tank, writing his records while reflecting on recent events.

For at least half a month, the rebels had displayed no organization whatsoever. They could not even respond consistently when under attack.

Some ran about in every direction, some scattered, and some howled as they launched surprise attacks with bombs strapped all over themselves.

It was not until half a month later that this situation changed.

The rebels began mounting effective defenses. Though their operations remained rather chaotic from an overall perspective, they had indeed regained some combat capability on local battlefields.

Unfortunately, this still posed no threat to the ground forces.

Just like this small city jointly attacked by the 87th and 31st Regiments, the Artillery Drones and Fire Support Drones had carried out a terrifying bombardment. Everyone else only needed to advance and clear out the rebels in the city.

"My brother, I will let your ashes see the sky, but not now, because we still cannot leave the lower hive."

Duncan wrote the final sentence and closed his diary.

Albert's name was written on the cover.

Looking at that name, Duncan felt somewhat guilty.

When Qin Mo had come to ask for his request, Duncan had not told him about Albert's final wish. But guilt aside, Duncan did not believe he had done anything wrong.

The counteroffensive was still underway, and the war in the lower hive was not over.

People came in order, and matters had their priorities.

"But I feel that we will win. Everyone thinks so. Afterward, I'll personally help you fulfill your final wish." Duncan muttered as he placed the diary into the metal box beneath his seat.

Everyone had one of these metal boxes. They were used to store personal effects—extremely sturdy, but not very spacious.

"Regimental Commander, you need to see this!"

Duncan heard someone calling for him, followed by the sound of knocking on the tank's armor. He immediately climbed out.

"You really need to see this." A company commander held up a piece of Power Armor wreckage.

Duncan reached out and took the fragment. Then he pulled a cable from beneath the Power Armor's helmet and plugged it into a port on the wreckage. A video immediately began playing inside his visor.

"This seems to be the underground air-raid shelter beneath the gang headquarters. Be careful."

"Yeah, yeah, got it."

"Your Crimson Crests gang headquarters had an underground air-raid shelter like this too?"

The footage was from a first-person perspective. It showed a soldier with a red crest of hair, along with several other soldiers.

It was an infantry squad.

"Why aren't you wearing a helmet? Showing off that crest of yours?"

"No. I'm afraid that when the Legion Commander casts his gaze across the battlefield, he won't be able to see my face."

"..."

The infantry squad chatted as they advanced through the underground air-raid shelter.

There were many rooms here, and the soldiers searched them one by one.

Until they reached the deepest section.

When the flashlight mounted on a Power Armor shoulder shone into the darkness ahead, the infantry squad saw a dense mass of Aberrants gathered there, all crowding around the door of a room.

The beam drew the Aberrants' attention. The infantry squad began running, and just as they were about to rush out through the shelter entrance, the image spun as it flew far away.

Clearly, the soldier recording the video had had his head smashed off.

"What should we do?" the company commander asked expectantly.

"Report the situation and ask the Legion Commander's guards to come over," Duncan replied.

The company commander could not hide his disappointment at that answer. Somewhat dissatisfied, he said, "With all due respect, Regimental Commander, this is our chance to earn merit. Why not send two companies and two tanks to lure the Aberrants out and kill them?"

"I want merit too, but do you know how many Aberrants are in there? Do you know whether there is something even more terrifying in the room they are blocking?"

"We must eliminate any possibility of the situation getting out of control."

"During tonight's rest period, every soldier in the regiment will copy the Power Armor operations manual ten times. The section on biological detection must not only be copied, but memorized."

After saying that, Duncan returned to the tank, not giving the company commander any chance to continue persuading him.

The company commander could only carry out the order helplessly.

Two minutes later.

Outside the gang headquarters, which had been sealed off by infantry and tanks, a transport craft shifted from flight to hovering.

In the eyes of other conventional units, the Legion Commander's guards always answered calls for aid and arrived with remarkable speed. This time, the one who came was Grot.

The moment the soldiers present saw Grot's Power Armor, they all felt fear.

Grot was carrying a gravity hammer, and his Power Armor was covered in blood from top to bottom. He had clearly just been through a battle, and it had been fought in his favorite fashion.

But the instant they saw Grot's face, the soldiers relaxed.

Grot treated his own people well. Not only was he unlike Grey, who rarely smiled, he would even encourage others after battles or joke around with them.

"Come on, brothers." Grot rested the gravity hammer on his shoulder and swept his gaze across the people present. "I'll respond to requests for help whenever I can, but can't this many of you handle a bunch of Aberrants?"

Besides two companies of infantry, there were also two tanks present.

Aberrants had no brains, especially now that their patriarch was dead. Any random plan could wipe them out.

"There are indeed a great many Aberrants inside, but there is something strange about it. All of them are crowding around one room." An officer stepped forward and explained the situation in detail.

"Oh, I see." Only then did Grot learn the full details. When he saw the request, all he knew was that these people wanted him to deal with Aberrants.

"Come along with me." Grot carried his gravity hammer into the building. "That way, you'll get a share of the merit once this is over."

The officer was overjoyed at this, thinking that Grot truly knew how to treat people right.

If Grey had come, he probably would have gone straight in without a word. He would never have thought about giving others a hand.

The group immediately entered the building and headed toward the underground air-raid shelter.

"I've got my Gravity Shield on, guys. Don't get too close in a bit." Though Grot was willing to bring them along, he did not want them interfering with his enjoyment of the battle.

Hearing that he had activated his Gravity Shield, those who had planned to follow nearby and provide fire support immediately backed away, afraid of being accidentally crushed to death by it.

Grot strode forward at the front while activating biological detection, scanning for every nonhuman life-form in the area.

The HUD map marked the enemies' positions: a total of 231 Aberrants.

Grot studied the map and found that the Aberrants were indeed packed tightly together, seemingly blocking something. But whatever they were blocking was clearly not alive, or it would have been detected.

Of course, there could be other reasons why it could not be detected.

"What the hell is this?" Grot turned to warn the others. "If anything goes wrong, run immediately. I have a Gravity Shield. You don't."

"Don't worry. If the Regimental Commander hadn't insisted on calling you here, we wouldn't be in this damned place brawling with Aberrants. We'd have lured them out and blown them up already," the officer said helplessly.